The Ohio State football program is in need of a new defensive coordinator. Just days after winning a national championship, Jim Knowles has bolted for rival Penn State. It's bad to lose Knowles at all, but for him to go to a rival in the Big Ten is much worse.
Ohio State now has a job to fill. There are three candidates who the Buckeyes should have at the top of their list moving forward. The first guy is someone who is in-house and is the most likely candidate for the job at this point.
1. Matt Guerrieri
Safeties coach Matt Guerrieri could be the guy who gets the job. He is a former defensive coordinator, as he was the Co-DC with both Duke and Indiana prior to arriving in Columbus. He did a great job coaching the safeties this season in his first year with the Buckeyes.
Guerrieri was seen as the successor to Knowles down the line. They obviously wanted to keep Knowles for as long as they could, but they feel good with Guerrieri on their staff. That doesn't mean that he is a shoo-in to get the job.
2. Jim Leonhard
If the Ohio State Buckeyes decide to go outside of the program for the hire. Leonhard could be someone they look at. Leonhard knows the Big Ten extremely well after playing at Wisconsin and then being their DC from 2017-2022.
Leonhard's Badgers teams always played great defense and had good numbers. Under Leonhard, the Badgers had top-ten DFEI defenses four times during his tenure with the Badgers. He's currently the defensive backs coach for the Denver Broncos.
3. Jeff Hafley
Jeff Hafley has an intimate knowledge of the Ohio State football program. He was the co-defensive coordinator for the Buckeyes back in 2019. He left after that season in order to become the head coach at Boston College. He left that post before the season in order to be the DC with the Green Bay Packers.
The reason why Hafley could be a candidate is because he isn't making a lot of money with the Packers. The Buckeyes could pay him more than he's making right now if he wanted to head back to college. He clearly doesn't want to be a college head coach, but perhaps he could be persuaded to be a DC.
These are the three main candidates the Buckeyes should be looking at to fill the defensive coordinator role right now. Hopefully, they can make a move quickly.